Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner drags on in the California mountains
San Bernardino County Sheriff's officers Ken Owens, center, and Bernabe Ortiz search a home for former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner in Big Bear Lake, Calif, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. / AP Photo
Updated 2:17 p.m. ET
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. The hunt for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected in three killings entered a fourth day, as officials from the Mexico border area to Las Vegas take precautions for the armed and dangerous fugitive. The hunt appeared to be focused on the snow-covered mountains near Big Bear, Calif., Sunday, a day after the LAPD chief ordered a review of the disciplinary case that led to the fugitive's dismissal and new details emerge of the evidence he left behind.
Manhunt for suspected LAPD cop killer
SWAT teams with air support and bloodhounds fanned out in snow-covered Southern California mountains, searching for 33-year-old Christopher Dorner, who has vowed revenge against several former LAPD colleagues whom he blames for ending his career. Authorities planned a 1 p.m. news conference Sunday in Los Angeles to announce a reward for information leading to his arrest.
KCBS in Los Angeles reports about 50 law enforcement officers combed the snow-capped terrain this weekend with the assistance of two heat-seeking helicopters.
Earlier, Police Chief Charlie Beck announced officials will re-examine the allegations by Dorner that his law enforcement career was undone by racist colleagues. While he promised to hear out Dorner if he surrenders, Beck stressed that he was ordering a review of his 2007 case because he takes the allegation of racism in his department seriously.
Christopher Dorner is seen on surveillance video at an Orange County, Calif., hotel Jan. 28, 2013, in this image provided by the Irvine Police Department.
/ AP Photo/Irvine Police Department"I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do," the chief said in a statement.
Dorner owns a home in Las Vegas, where assistant Las Vegas Sheriff Greg McCurdy told CBS affiliate KLAS Friday afternoon all Metro Police uniformed officers will be traveling in two person units as a precaution in response to the threat Dorner poses to police officers.
"When you have someone who is highly trained, highly capable, having been a police officer in the past, having prior military experience whose made threats, and you've all read about them in the manifesto, we take this very seriously," McCurdy said.
Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul said all officers who normally patrol on motorcycle have been placed with cars until further notice. He said uniformed officers are working in pairs as staffing allows.
Earlier this week the manhunt was centered in San Diego and officials have again intensified efforts around the border with Mexico, reports CBS affiliate KFMB in San Diego.
Customs and Border Protection said its agents are assisting in the search for Dorner and some lanes at the border have been shut down.
"CBP is also exercising additional vigilance in southbound inspections in Southern California. As a result, travelers heading southbound into Mexico may experience delays," said the CBP in a statement to KFMB.
Heavily armored officers, armed with rifles, could be seen on Saturday surveying vehicles and drivers at the world's busiest border crossing creating a massive bottleneck.
Authorities suspect Dorner in a series of attacks in Southern California over the past week that left three people dead. Authorities say he has vowed revenge against several former LAPD colleagues whom he blames for ending his career. The killings and threats that Dorner allegedly made in an online rant have led police to provide protection to 50 families, Beck said.
A captain who was named a target in the manifesto posted on Facebook told the Orange County Register he has not stepped outside his house since he learned of the threat.
Ex-LAPD cop accused of going on killing spree
Fugitive officer goes from hunter to hunted
Where and when will Dorner appear next?
"From what I've seen of (Dorner's) actions, he feels he can make allegations for injustice and justify killing people and that's not reasonable," said Capt. Phil Tingirides, who chaired a board that stripped Dorner of his badge. "The end never justifies the means."
On Saturday, the scaled-back search party took advantage of a break from stormy weather to look for Dorner in the San Bernardino mountains, about 80 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, where his burned-out pickup truck was discovered Thursday.
Authorities say camping gear was found along with weapons inside the burned-out truck belonging to Dorner. Los Angeles police Sgt. Rudy Lopez said Sunday that the truck was so charred that investigators couldn't be more specific about the nature of its contents.
On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reported that Dorner's abandonment of his truck because of a broken axle has prompted authorities to believe that he has shifted "from being the hunter to the hunted."
Inside the truck, CBS News correspondent Carter Evans reports from Los Angeles that, according to police sources, investigators recovered weapons, including two long-range rifles with silencers, cold-weather survival gear, along with night-vision goggles and a gas mask.
It's unknown what supplies Dorner was able to carry into the remote mountains east of Los Angeles, Evans reports.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department helicopter becomes airborne to resume the search for fugitive Christopher Dorner Saturday Feb. 9, 2013, near Big Bear, Calif.
/ AP Photo/Tami AbdollahInvestigators have been examining the truck to determine if it broke down or was set ablaze as a diversion. Police say the truck had a broken axle. Investigators are trying to determine whether it was already broken when they found it, or whether it was damaged when it was towed away.
Also, newly released surveillance video showed Dorner tossing several items into a dumpster behind an auto parts store in National City on Monday.
On Friday night, authorities served a search warrant and collected evidence from a Buena Park storage unit as part of their investigation. Irvine police Lt. Julia Engen wouldn't elaborate on the nature of the evidence or say who had rented the unit.
Earlier Friday, another warrant was served at a La Palma house belonging to Dorner's mother. Officers collected 10 bags of evidence, including five electronic items.
In his online manifesto, Dorner vowed to use "every bit of small arms training, demolition, ordnance and survival training I've been given" to bring "warfare" to the LAPD and its families.
Dorner served in the Navy, earning a rifle marksman ribbon and a pistol expert medal. He was assigned to a naval undersea warfare unit and various aviation training units, according to military records. He took leave from the LAPD for a six-month deployment to Bahrain in 2006 and 2007.
The flight training that he received in the Navy prompted the Transportation Security Administration to issue an alert, warning the general aviation community to be on the lookout for Dorner. The extent of his potential flying skills wasn't known, the bulletin said.
Ex-LAPD Chief: Police "on edge" in hunt for cop killer
Feb. 1 was his last day with the Navy and also the day CNN's Anderson Cooper received a package that contained a note on it that read, in part, "I never lied." A coin riddled with bullet holes that former Chief William Bratton gave out as a souvenir was also in the package.
Police said it was a sign of planning by Dorner before the killing began.
On "CBS This Morning" Friday, Bratton described Dorner as "an incredibly dangerous individual" and reacted to the damaged coin.
"When you see that that coin that was given in friendship and respect has three bullet holes, it's certainly very chilling," Bratton said.
On Feb. 3, police say Dorner shot and killed a couple in a parking garage at their condominium in Irvine. The woman was the daughter of a retired police captain who had represented Dorner in the disciplinary proceedings that led to his firing.
Dorner wrote in his manifesto that he believed the retired captain had represented the interests of the department over his.
Hours after authorities identified Dorner as a suspect in the double murder, police believe Dorner shot and grazed an LAPD officer in Corona and then used a rifle to ambush two Riverside police officers early Thursday, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
The crime spree spanned across a wide swath of Southern California, prompting several police agencies, including the FBI and US Marshall Service, to form a joint investigative task force.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights 137 Comments
- Massive train collision takes down highway overpass
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Thousands of U.S. bridges vulnerable to collapse
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 329 Comments
- Deadly Angel Flight crash in upstate New York
- Texas flooding turns deadly
Yes, of course the LAPD wants to silence Dorner, and generations of corruption within the LAPD has not changed at all, mirroring the 1953 Nite Owl killings in 'L.A. Confidential' with Sergeant Edmund "Ed" Exley pursuing absolute justice, all the while trying to live up to his family name.
History does repeat itself, and in 'L.A. Confidential,' a dramatic showdown eventually occurs with powerful and corrupt forces within the city's political leadership and the department.
that LAPD may have screwed over and now wants revenge.
And a $1M reward for info leading to capture. Why??
Because Dorner wants to kill a few of LAPD's finest.
Not the Pres or VP, or politicians or the famous. Dorner wants cops.
Imagine how many violent crimes those 1000 LEO's could be preventing
or solving if they were not hunting Dorner? Do y'all think the gangs
in LA and all of Cal are taking a holiday waiting for you to get back
to normal police duties?
Gang related shootings and violence are now banned until Dorner
is caught or killed. And innocent civilians have been shot by police
in Torrance because they drove a similar vehicle to Dorner.
LAPD and the whole Cal Law Enforcement System should reset their
priorities now and calm down.
and 5 mins later open fire on another cop car........ how did he make it out of the City alive ...... where were the rest of the cops ........ where they the only 2 cop cars on the road ?.
Why wernt all roads shut down and other Police departments informed ....... including Smokey Bear Police who could have just waited for him ........... does not make sense
- So because of the excuse of hunting one man (Christopher Jordan Dorner) has a vendetta against supposedly corrupt cops and their accomplices, cops use tax payers money, get extra overtime,
raid the public funds, tax payers money, and resources to protect themselves and risk the public and their lives! Christopher Jordan Dorner is not after the public, he is after those supposedly corrupt cops and their accomplices! Now it seems that the public has to protect themselves from the Cops and their wild shooting, instead of Christopher Jordan Dorner! There has to be an independent entity so he can be apprehended or turn himself in, because the cops proved that the just want to execute him! That is not the American Justice System, We the people Deserve!
LOL! Seems like reading comprehension came back to bite "bassy" too!
The article clearly states that it's the San Bernardino Sheriff's Dept. that has been searching the Big Bear area for Dorner -- not LAPD!